by Brianna Crandall — November 28, 2012—At an official ceremony on November 14 hosted by M+S Pte Ltd, a property alliance between Malaysia and Singapore, German architect Ole Scheeren presented the design for DUO, a new mixed-use, integrated development in Singapore that articulates the partnership. Featuring two sculpted towers rising from a tropical landscape, the development integrates premium offices and residences, a five-star hotel, and signature retail space. The project was designed to engage in “an active dialogue” with the diverse buildings and surrounding contemporary and historic urban fabric.
According to the architect’s firm Büro Ole Scheeren, the two towers are not conceived as autonomous objects, but defined by the spaces they create around them. The design for DUO subtracts circular carvings from the building volumes in a series of concave movements that generate and articulate urban spaces and symbiotically inscribe the two buildings into their context, explains the firm. Slender façades soar skywards along the adjoining roads, while a net-like hexagonal pattern of sunshades forms a natural texture that reinforces the dynamic concave shapes. The duo of tower volumes is further sculpted to feature a series of cantilevers and setbacks that evoke the kinetic movement of a dancing couple or two sparring tai chi masters, adds the firm.
Büro Ole Scheeren describes the buildings as dematerializing as they reach the ground to provide a porous and permeable landscape traversing the site. Leisure zones and gardens act as a connector between multiple transport hubs and establish a flow of tropical green and lively commercial activity, accessible to the public 24 hours a day. A plaza, carved into the center of the towers and strategically incorporating the neighboring building as part of its perimeter, forms a new public nexus between the historic district of Kampong Glam and the extension of the city’s commercial corridor.
The development incorporates environmental strategies through passive and active energy-efficient design and naturally ventilated spaces. The building’s orientation is optimized to prevailing sun and wind angles, while the concave building massing captures and channels wind flows through and across the site, fostering cool microclimates within the shaded outdoor spaces. Extensive landscape areas at the ground levels, elevated terraces, and roofscapes provide accessible green space equal to 100 percent of the site area.
Commissioned in March 2011 and due to commence construction early 2013, DUO further expands the portfolio of Ole Scheeren, who was the leading architect behind the CCTV headquarters in Beijing and the floating outdoor auditorium Archipelago Cinema in Thailand. Büro Ole Scheeren, with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and London, is currently working on a range of city-defining structures and cultural projects, including an arts center near the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, and Angkasa Raya, a 268-meter-tall building of floating rectangular volumes in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with construction underway on Mahanakhon, soon to be the tallest skyscraper in Bangkok, Thailand.
